so as by pulling up one of these cords out of the sea, I have seen five hundred oysters hanging in a heap thereon; whereof the report came, that oysters grew on trees in India. But that they bear any such huge leaves, or any such delicate fruit, I could never find, and yet I have travelled a dozen miles together under them. But to return to Goropius Becanus. This tree, saith he, was good for meat and pleasing to the sight, as the tree of knowledge of good and evil is described to be. Secondly, this tree having so huge a trunk, (as the former authors report, and Becanus believeth,) it was in this tree that Adam and Eve hid themselves from the presence of God; for no other tree, saith he, could contain them. But first it is certain, that this tree hath no extraordinary magnitude, as touching the trunk or stem; for among ten thousand of them it is hard to find any one bigger than the rest; and these are all of a mean size. Secondly, the words of Moses, translated in medio ligni, are by all the interpreters understood in the plural number, that is, "in the "midst of the trees." But his third argument (or rather the argument of Moses Bar-Cephas, word for word) is, that when Adam and Eve found themselves naked, they made them breeches of fig-leaves; which proveth, indeed, that either the tree itself was a fig-tree, or that a fig-tree grew near it because Adam being possessed with shame, did not run up and down the garden to seek out leaves to cover him, but found them in the place itself; and these leaves of all others were most commodious, by reason of their largeness, which Pliny avoweth in these words; 'Latitudo foliorum peltæ effigiem Amazonia habet: " The breadth of "the leaves hath the shape of an Amazonian shield:" which also Theophrast confirmeth: the form of which target Virgil touches; m Ducit Amazonidum lunatis agmina peltis k Gen. iii. 7. 1 Pl. 1. 12. c. 5. m Virg. Æn. I. 490. The Amazon with crescent-formed shield Here Becanus desireth to be believed, or rather threateneth us all that read him, to give credit to this his borrowed discovery, using this confident (or rather choleric) speech. Quis erit tam impudenter obstinatus, si hæc a nobis de ficu hac ex antiquis scriptoribus cum Mosis narratione comparet, ut audeat dicere aliam arborem inveniri posse, quæ cum illa magis quadret; "Who will be so impudently obsti"nate, if he compare these things, which we have reported "of this fig-tree, and out of ancient writers delivered, with the "narration of Moses, as to dare to avow that any other tree 66 can be found, which doth more properly answer or agree "therewith." But for myself, because I neither find this tree sorting in body, in largeness of leaves, nor in fruit to this report, I rather incline to the opinion of Philo; that the earth never brought forth any of these trees neither before nor after: but I leave every man to his own belief, for the matter is of no great weight as touching his kind; only thereby, and by the easy commandment by God given to Adam, to forbear to feed thereon, it pleased God to make trial of his obedience: n Prohibita, non propter aliud, quam ad commendandum puræ ac simplicis obedientiæ bonum; "Being forbidden, not for any other respect, than thereby "to commend the goodness of pure and simple obedience.” SECT. III., Of Becanus's not unwitty allegorizing of the story of his ficus Indica. BUT in this I must do Becanus right, that he hath very wittily allegorized this tree, allowing his supposition of the tree itself to be true. The effects whereof, because his discourses are exceeding ample, I have gathered in these few words. As this tree, saith he, so did man grow straight and upright towards God, until such time as he had transgressed and broken the commandment of his Creator; and then, like unto the boughs of this tree, he began to bend downward, and stooped toward the earth, which all the rest of Adam's posterity after him have done, rooting themselves therein, and fastening themselves to this corrupt world. The exceeding umbrageousness of this tree he compareth to the dark and shadowed life of man, through which the sun of justice being not able to pierce, we have all remained in the shadow of death, till it pleased Christ to climb the tree of the cross for our enlightening and redemption. The little fruit which it beareth, and which is hard to find among so many large leaves, may be compared, saith he, to the little virtue and unperceived knowledge among so large vanities, which obscure and shadow it over. And as this fruit is exceeding sweet and delicate to the taste and palate, so are the delights and pleasures of the world most pleasing while they dure. But as all those things which are most mellifluous are soonest changed into choler and bitterness; so are our vanities and pleasures converted into the bitterest sorrows and repentances. That the leaves are so exceeding large, the fruit (for such leaves) exceeding little, in this, by comparison, we behold, saith he, the many cares and great labours of worldly men, their solicitude, their outward shows and public ostentation, their apparent pride and large vanities; and if we seek for the fruit, which ought to be their virtuous and pious actions, we find it of the bigness of the smallest pea; glory, to all the world apparent; goodness, to all the world invisible. And furthermore, as the leaves, body, and boughs of this tree, by so much exceed all other plants, as the greatest men of power and worldly ability surpass the meanest; so is the little fruit of such men and such trees rather fitting and becoming the unworthiest shrub and humblest brier, or the poorest and basest man, than such a flourishing stateliness and magnitude. Lastly, whereas Adam, after he had disobeyed God, and beheld his own nakedness and shame, sought for leaves to cover himself withal, this may serve to put us in mind of his and our sins, as often as we put on our garments to cover and adorn our rotten and mortal bodies; to pamper and maintain which we use so many uncharitable and cruel practices in this world. SECT. IV. Of the name of the tree of knowledge of good and evil; other notes touching the story of Adam's sin. with some NOW, as touching the sense of this tree of knowledge of good and evil, and what operation the fruit thereof had, and as touching the property of the tree itself, Moses BarCephas, an ancient Syrian doctor, (translated by Masius,) giveth this judgment; that the fruit of this tree had no such virtue or quality, as that by the tasting thereof there was any such knowledge created in Adam, as if he had been ignorant before; but as Junius also noteth, Arbor scientiae boni et mali; id est, experientia boni et mali ab eventu; "The tree of knowledge of good and evil; that is, the expe"rience of good and evil by the event.' For thus much we may conceive, that Adam being made (according to the Hebrew phrase) by the workmanship of God's own hand, in greater perfection than ever any man was produced by generation, being, as it were, the created plant, out of whose seed all men living have grown up; and having received immortality from the breath or Spirit of God, he could not (for these respects) be ignorant, that the disobeying of God's commandment was the fearfullest evil, and the observation of his precepts the happiest good. But as men in perfect health do, notwithstanding, conceive that sickness is grievous, and yet in no such degree of torment, as by the suffering and experience in themselves they afterwards witness: so was it with Adam, who could not be ignorant of the punishments due to neglect and disobedience ; and yet felt by the proof thereof in himself another terror than he had forethought or could image. For looking into the glass of his own guilty soul, he beheld therein the horror of God's judgments, so as he then knew, he feelingly knew, and had trial of the late good, which could not be prized, and of the new purchased evil, which could not be expressed. He then saw himself naked both in body and mind; that is, deprived of God's grace and former felicity: and therefore was this tree called the tree of knowledge, and not because the fruit thereof had any such operation by any self-quality or effect; for the same phrase is used in many places of the scriptures, and names are given to signs and sacraments, as to acts performed and things done. In such sort as this tree was called the tree of knowledge, because of the event, as is aforesaid, so was the well of contention therefore called PEsek, and the well of hatred 9 Sitnath, because the herdsmen of Isaac and Gerar contended for them; and the heap of stones, called the 'heap of witness, between Jacob and Laban, not that the stones bare witness, but for a memory of the covenant. So Jacob called the house of God $Bethel; and Hagar, the well in the desert, viventis et videntis. But Adam being both betrayed and mastered by his affections, ambitious of a further knowledge than he had perceived in himself, and looking but slightly (as all his issues do) into the miseries and sorrows incident, and greatly affecting the supposed glory which he might obtain by tasting the fruit forbidden, he was transported and blown forward by the gentle wind of pleasing persuasions unawares; his progression being strengthened by the subtile arguments of Satan, who laboured to poison mankind in the very root, which he moistened with the liquor of the same ambition by which himself perished for ever. uBut what means did the Devil find out, or what instruments did his own subtilty present him, as fittest and aptest to work this mischief by? Even the unquiet vanity of the woman; so as by Adam's hearkening to the voice of his wife, contrary to the express commandment of the living God, mankind by that her incantation became the subject • Numb. xx. 13. r Gen. xxxi. 48. s Gen. xxviii. 19. t Gen. xvi. 14. u Bart. sem. 2. 1. 2. |